Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Is there any aspect of human life that is unaffected by IT?

We wondered in class about aspects of human life that have as yet remained untouched by IT. Some examples like sleep and meditation were good attempts but other students did not agree. Please feel free to share any other examples that come to your mind, and also feel free to contest any examples with counterpoints.  

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Computers/Internet and how we think

Here is an article that should make us think how we use Internet and whether it affects how we process information and think
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

Another article by Greengard makes similar points.
Greengard, S. "Are we losing our ability to think critically?," Communications of the ACM (52:7) 2009, pp 18-19



Friday, March 25, 2011

Did Blockbuster have a digital business strategy?

Here is how John Antioco and Carl Icahn recall why Blockbuster failed:

See http://hbr.org/2011/04/how-i-did-it-blockbusters-former-ceo-on-sparring-with-an-activist-shareholder/ar/1#comment-167712680

Their recollections raise several questions: what exactly is the role of Board of Directors in shaping digital strategies of organizations? Could board have done anything to get Blockbuster to move sooner with its digital business strategy?  




Sunday, March 13, 2011

IT and human decision-making

I devote a significant part of my time to understand how IT influences firm performance, but I am increasingly beginning to think that there is much that we need to do to understand what IT can do to help take decisions that happen outside business settings  (e.g., how you pick your friends, spouse, sports, hobbies) because they have significant impact on what happens inside firms. I look forward to learning more on this and share in some of future postings.